"Who are you calling a weirdo!?" Retorted a woman in her 20s dawning leather armor, parting the bushes as she made herself known.

"That's how you greet a woman?" she stated with a look of disapproval and a raised eyebrow.

"Sorry, but my mother always told me not to talk to strangers," Luz replied as he tightened the grip on his knife.

"Understandable. But you are aware that you are on a private hunting ground of a noble family," the woman said with a sigh.

"I'm sorry, but do you happen to have a map. Also, could you please tell me where I am?" Luz asked with a sincere smile.

"I'd be happy to. We are in the west, a day's walk from Bridgescar. If you need a map, follow me. I left it at my camp," the woman said before turning her back on Luz, who complied and followed her.

But even then, the situation felt strange to Luz.

'Shouldn't she be carrying a map with her? Maybe I'm just paranoid due to the events I experienced today.' thought Luz with a stern face as he followed her on full alert.

On the way back, he heard an occasional rustling sound that did not come from animals, and at the same time, he felt as if he was being watched by someone.

The girl leading him didn't make the situation any easier either. Her regular stops and shorthand movements in some directions only raised his suspicion.

But only after seeing a person on a branch 5m above him did he act.

Hastily, he grabbed the wrist of the woman, who cried out before pressing his knife against her throat.

"What are you doing?" the woman asked in a panic.

"Shut up. I know for a fact that something is wrong here. Just for your information, I am a mage, and if you don't come out, I will kill your companion and you," Luz threatened in fury while sweat was running down his back.

"Alright," the stranger on the tree replied and jumped down from the branch before slowly moving in his direction.

The woman wasn't too pleased with her situation and struggled slightly, causing Luz's knife to slightly cut into her skin.

"If you don't stop now, you'll get yourself killed," Luz cursed before telling the man, "stop moving and stay where you are."

Unfortunally for Luz, he realized way too late that it was a one versus three and not a one versus two. The man merely tried to distract him from what awaited behind him. Before Luz could realize it, a giant emerged from the bushes carrying a giant bat, swinging it towards Luz.

The club smashed right into Luz's backhead, toppling him over.

"That almost went wrong," the woman cursed.

"It didn't. Instead, we even caught another mage. Hehehe." replied a broadly built man carrying a wooden club.

"But Elon, if that's a real mage… then we have a damn problem," answered the slender man who jumped down from the tree earlier.

"Oh, Dylan. I know someone who likes to buy people like that. But it would be wiser if we tied his mouth and eyes. Also, we should chain his limbs together before we depart," Elon returned.

"Yes, that would be the wisest decision," replied Dylan as he put Luz into chains.

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Luz was a mage apprentice in the mid-18 from a village deep in the coniferous forest and far from any civilization. Their home village was on the border of the kingdom of Raneian, to which they regularly pay taxes once a year.

The world is big but not well connected. People who live in settlements far away from cities sometimes have a hard time.

Tron, a small settlement deep in the coniferous forest, is one of them. The ancestors of this 200-man settlement were family members of followers of a prince who ended up on the losing side in the struggle for the throne.

Now more than 500 years have passed. The inhabitants of that village have already forgotten the prince name for whom they once fought.

If one gave them a map of the kingdom, they couldn't even point out the location of their village. The villagers only knew that they were in the Raneaian kingdom to whom they paid taxes once a year.

Likewise, they consider the existence of cities a myth. Their vocabulary and alphabet have degenerated due to isolation to the point that their alphabet lacks a few letters. This made reading the books of their ancestors hard to read and understand. At least they still learn to read. Members of such settlements see mages as children of God or as God's blessed ones.

What these settlers do not know, however, is that every human possesses at least one unawakened magic talent, some even several. But in order to awaken one's magic talent, one should know the concepts of the respective magic branches.

For example, understanding that fire is created due to heat and oxidation of various materials are crucial pieces of information if one wants to awaken a fire talent.

More complex talents such as Space Control or Swarm Control are more difficult to awaken on your own as the concepts are harder to understand.

However, it can also happen that a person's understanding of their respective elements is similar to reality, allowing them to awaken by pure chance.

The problem most people face is, knowing which kind of magic talent one has. Knowing how fire is created won't help you awaken your water magic talent.

Thankfully, mages such as master mages can easily detect what kind of talents a person has if it belongs to the four elements. But the moment their talent is a bit more complex, they fail to detect them unless they themselves have it.

For such talents, one either needs to find mages on the grandmaster level are required.

Fortunately, other methods also exist to detect one's mage talent, such as medicine which allows one to understand the concepts or machines that recognize one's magic talent. Unfortunally, such things often exist in cities.

A few days ago was the day when he and his siblings should have been transported by a mage to one of the cities. Due to his old age, Luz was not the cream of the crop and would probably have ended up in the army.

Unfortunately, the village discovered a dragon, and while trying to chase it away with the help of mercenaries, the whole village was reduced to rubble. But enough background information. It's time to continue with the story.

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Luz awoke in a horse-drawn cart. His head was still aching and throbbing, but Luz could neither see nor speak because of his blindfolded eyes and tied mouth. Nor could he move any of his limbs as they were chained together behind his back.

At least he could hear what was going on, and it seemed that the cart was being driven by two men, who were talking loudly.

Luz decided to rub his head slowly against the wooden cart in hopes of moving his blindfold.

The dirty floor didn't stop Luz from his ambitions, and it took him great effort till the blindfold and his mouth gag were moved slightly, allowing him to speak and see.

'Wait and see. I'm going to kill all of you! Ok, how am I going to escape from them?'

Luz was lying on the ground, and his bulging veins could be seen as he gripped the chains in his hands. The cart was stopped, and Luz heard one of the two men get out.

"Ey Elon, I'll bring the merchant here. You keep an eye on him until then," Dylan said.

"Will do," Luz heard as he paid attention, and after 2 minutes, he grabbed the opportunity.